Pardew on why he changed the culture at NUFC

ALAN PARDEW inherited a dressing room who felt hard done by when Chris Hughton was shown the door in December 2010.

THE backdrop is Elland Road, Newcastle United had just lost 3-2 in a pre-season friendly to a Leeds side in the division below them and anxieties were growing on the terraces that the Magpies’ squad wasn’t strong enough to compete at the business end of the Premier League.

It might seem like a lifetime ago, but it was only on the final day of July 2011 that the Toon Army felt the shockwaves of what looked like another drama on Tyneside.

Joey Barton marched up the sideline and back towards the Toon team bus and – when asked by media men if he wanted to comment – said: “It’ll cause a riot if I say something.”

Moments later his temper got the better of him and effectively ended his United career in less than four or five tweets.

It is understood that Barton – who questioned the direction of the club – had already kicked off in the dressing room before the friendly game at Elland Road after being told he would not captain the Magpies that day.

The fact new signing Yohan Cabaye had also been placed on corner-taking duty ahead of him had also not helped his mood.

Days earlier, Jose Enrique had earned himself a huge fine for lashing out at the board during the club’s pre-season tour of the US.

And captain Kevin Nolan had been sold earlier that summer to follow on from Andy Carroll’s £35m sale to Liverpool the previous January.

The tweets from Barton and Enrique projected a feeling of unrest from the dressing room.

National newspapers described it as being a suggestion of “widespread unrest in the dressing room”.

However, in reality it was very much a changing of the guard at Newcastle.

And while those sold weren’t afraid to work hard and play hard after games during their stay in the city, Alan Pardew had made a brave decision to change the culture of the locker room at United.

The efforts of Nolan, Enrique, Carroll and Barton will never be forgotten during promotion, but Newcastle were about to enter a brave new world.

Suddenly the Diamond Strip was off the fixture list for the core of the Toon squad, and Jagerbombs were swapped for mineral water and syrup amid games of cards on dry nights in with the likes of Cabaye, Demba Ba and Hatem Ben Arfa.

The culture was changing.

With Fabricio Coloccini in place as skipper, the team regularly have meals out, and no longer are there major cliques in the dressing room – nor a players’ committee.

Last season assistant manager John Carver commented that some players didn’t feel intimidated about offering input – suddenly the likes of Ryan Taylor and James Perch were able to express themselves – and performances on the field showed it.

Was it a brave decision to change the dressing room by Pardew and his staff, or just excellent judgement?

Perhaps last season’s fifth-place finish is the best answer to that question.

Pardew told the Chronicle in the latest instalment of his exclusive interview: “There was a different mentality on the training ground that I wanted to bring to the football club.

“Players come and go – but the mentality must stay the same.

“I would like to think I’m fair with players, though.

“I can still look all the players in the eye, Kevin Nolan, Joey Barton, Enrique and even young Greg McDermott and say that I was fair.

“I was fair with them – and it is the same for Nile Ranger now.”

This week Pardew lambasted Ranger’s shocking punctuality and has insisted he wants hungry players who can see what an honour it is to pull on the jersey and represent the black-and-whites.

Fairness and equality is where Pardew is at as manager of the Magpies.

Even Ranger can’t say Pardew didn’t give him a chance to shine, with the Londoner playing in 18 games of his first season in charge and failing to score.

Pardew said: “That’s what I wanted as a player and that’s what I got from Steve Coppell at Crystal Palace.

“I know I didn’t get that at other clubs.

“I just wanted them to be fair and say ‘You’re not playing for this reason, you’re not selected, go and train harder and get in the team’.

“If I did something wrong I wanted to be treated fairly.

“I’ve done that here, even with Nile Ranger.”

Twitter has changed football management and society in general since it became a craze in recent years.

Pardew isn’t on Twitter himself, but insists he has to take a strong view on anything that disrupts dressing room harmony – something that the Barton and Enrique outbursts did in July 2011.

And he indicated his stance on social networking in an emphatic manner.

He said: “If you are going to criticise a fellow player, anything about the club or the chairman, there is going to be a price for it.

“Come and do it in my office for sure, I’ve got no problem with that.

“It’s a new medium, certainly we’re getting our heads around it now.

“The England party is starting to feel that too.

“It is starting to have an impact throughout football, you seen the mess that Ashley Cole got into and Rio Ferdinand.

“Joey Barton would be the first to admit he made errors on there too.

“It is a medium that’s out there.”

And so the message is loud and clear at Newcastle these days – tweet up, and be prepared to pack up and leave.

Pardew said: “Players have to be very careful because on their written contracts, at every club – not just Newcastle – from Southampton to Crewe, it bars you from talking about the club unless it is in a positive manner.

“Criticising the manager is something you just can’t do.

“Ultimately you have to be strong. You have to say ‘It’s wrong you are going to pay for it’. That’s what I did with Joey and Enrique and everybody else here.”

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